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Pro-Morsi rallies in Egypt smaller amid arrests

Military-backed interim government has rounded up much of the Muslim Brotherhood's leadership

By Tony G. Gabrieland Sarah El Deeb Associated Press

Posted:
08/23/2013 08:07:42 PM MDT

Updated:
08/23/2013 08:08:14 PM MDT

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Egyptian security forces deploy Friday in Tanta, Egypt, where supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi clashed with residents, killing one. As the military deployed in a show of force, hundreds of Mohammed Morsi supporters took to the streets Friday in scattered rallies across the capital, but the Muslim Brotherhood failed to bring out large numbers in a sign that the movement may be waning after the arrest of the group s senior leadership in an intense security crackdown.

CAIRO -- Supporters of Egypt's deposed president, who once overwhelmed cities in the hundreds of thousands, changed tactics Friday by demonstrating in scattered, small rallies that avoided confronting a heavy military deployment waiting for them across the country.

The low turnout signaled the strain on ousted leader Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, as it has trouble drawing large numbers of supporters and faces an increasingly skeptical Egyptian public wary of more bloodshed like that which followed the July 3 military coup that overthrew him. Meanwhile, an intense security crackdown by the military-backed interim government has rounded up much of its leadership.

The Brotherhood has "committed a strategic error last week by mixing peaceful protests with armed clashes with civilians," said Abdullah el-Sinawi, an Egyptian newspaper columnist and analyst. "Many supporters are now staying away, fearing that new civilian-on-civilian clashes will erupt."

Morsi supporters dubbed the day the "Friday of Martyrs," in reference to the several hundred people that died in clashes with Egypt's military during raids on street camps this month. Last Friday, vigilantes at neighborhood checkpoints battled Morsi supporters across the capital in unprecedented clashes between residents that killed more than 170 people, including dozens of police officers.

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Ahead of the protests, soldiers in armored personnel carriers and tanks deployed early Friday across the country on major roads and plazas to stop demonstrators from gathering. But after Friday prayers, Cairo and the rest of Egypt did not see massive crowds on the streets. Instead, small groups of Islamists in the hundreds chanted against the military and held up posters of Morsi on side streets and outside neighborhood mosques.

Thousands marched through the streets of Cairo's Nasr City district. Some chanted: "We are willing to sacrifice our lives" and "We promise the martyrs that we will end military rule."

Mohamed Ahmed, a Morsi supporter, insisted the movement against what the Brotherhood calls an "illegitimate" coup would continue.

"Everybody knows there could be a bloodbath. But as long as we are fighting for our rights, with God's will, we will win," he said as he joined protesters gathering outside a mosque following prayers in Giza, a satellite city of Cairo and home to the famous Pyramids.

The protests remained largely peaceful, though a few clashes broke out. Police fired tear gas to stop rival camps from fighting with knives and birdshot in the Delta city of Tanta. One pro-Morsi supporter was killed and 26 were injured, a local medical official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

In one incident late Friday, a private TV station, Mehwer, said its crew was held hostage in a southern Cairo suburb by pro-Morsi protesters, who forced them at gunpoint to continue airing a rally they were staging. The standoff in Helwan lasted for more than two hours, and the crew aired the protest live under threat, the station said. The interior ministry later said the crew and the mobile live station were freed, and five were arrested.

Police investigator Hesham Lotfi told Mehwer TV station after the crew was freed that the protesters had handed over the mobile live station and the operators to local gang members who tried to extort them for money in exchange for their freedom. Lotfi said the gangsters were arrested.

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